Three prospective jurors in the Colorado theater shooting trial used their cellphones despite a judge’s order, one might have been sleeping and all of them endured a slow security screening as the long slog toward picking a jury got underway.

Jury selection in the trial of the man accused of killing 12 people and injuring 70 others in an attack on a Colorado movie theater is set to begin, with the first of 9,000 prospective jurors reporting to court on Tuesday.

The offer of a guilty plea for a life sentence may not have been accepted by prosecutors in the James Holmes case, but the issue has given the entire Colorado community a chance to really dissect many sides of the death penalty.